Making My Own Wedding Dress: Inspiration and Frankenpatterns

I promise this won't become a wedding blog, but making my own wedding dress definitely will involve lots of sewing time and planning.

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For as long as I can remember, this Audrey Hepburn dress from Funny Face has been my dream dress. Tea-length, boat-neck with cap sleeves, big skirt and fitted bodice. Sounds like me, right?

There are elements I want to change, though, for sure:
1. Closer to knee-length
2. Waistband at natural waist
3. Lace on top

So what I'm thinking to do is use a couple of patterns together.

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I want the above type of sleeve, from Butterick B4443, but on the bodice from my New Look 6223 Oscar de la Renta dress (darts instead of princess seams) and a boat neck:

I also think I want a true waistband, a la Cambie and Lonsdale:

That way I can have a big wide ribbon as a belt, maybe?

And I want a big fluffy skirt.

My current idea is to go with a cotton petticoat on the bottom, something like these:

And then a stiff crinoline on top of that. Or maybe just a slip and two crinolines? I definitely want a very full skirt, though.

I'm wearing a crinoline (of the stiff variety) in my Cambie dress pictures, but I definitely want an even larger skirt.

The question I have about the skirt is gathers? Full circle? Not quite sure what to do about the skirt. Got any ideas?

I've never worked with lace before, so we might have a test run with cheap lace before I start in on any wedding lace, but I'd like to do a lace overlay on the bodice. If I can find it, I'd love to do a silk lining as well.

Basically, I have my work cut out for me...